The atmosphere in the entrance of the room grew tense, Amon looked around at the four young men standing in the door way, he let out a sigh and pushed himself from the floor, dusting the barely perceived dust off of his clothes. When he stood up he was taller than the boys had expected, Aster was the tallest out of them and he stood about two inches taller than him, he walked over to them, Aster and Polaris stood in the front, both of them took a step back, Aster’s face gave away his anxiety about the person walking towards them, he felt the instinctive pull of his hammer coming to him from underground, he caught himself midway relaxing his hands and stopping iit from flying into his hand, Polaris on the other hand, his eyes kept focused on the Amon, on instinct he reached for his sword, his restraint was not on Aster’s level, the white crossed hilt unclipped from it’s sheath ready to be drawn, the two didn’t know why but Amon had shifted from barely noticeable to a perceived threat in an instant, Polaris felt Barak’s hand rest on his shoulders, a small jolt lingered from Barak’s fingertips,

“Cut it out Amon”, Yumi’s voice cut throught the tension in an instant, Amon stretched out his hand, to give Aster a handshake, a sly smile running on his face, his eyes inviting and friendly,

“Come on yumi I was just testing them, and I must say I like their reactions”, Amon said, Aster sending out his hand to shake Amon’s,

“Obviously I’ve been training them for three months, I’m sure if they felt any actual malice from you they would’ve attacked”, yumi said, not even batting an eye in their direction,

“well anyways, I’m Amon”, the rebel leader introduced himself,

“ let me first apologize for you having to come here, my little brother is a giant pain in the ass”, he said, as he sat down at his desk rubbing the back of his head and chuckling awkwardly,

“unlike his little brother Amon here refused to jump in bed with the Royalty of dracht, and unlike his little brother he has a tendency to be to relaxed about things”, Yumi said, staring at amon,

“Guilty on all accounts”, Amon said, throwing up both hands and chickling softly,

“but my reasoning isn’t so noble as she makes it out to be, My family”, he began to say, stroking his silvery goatee,

“My brother and I have been close to the royal family since we were kids, the crown prince and my brother were best friends growing up the prince would often sneak out the palace to come play with him at the orphanage, so when the king found out he invited yumi, my brother and I to the palace for a while”, he paused,

“sounds like a lovely story” Levant said, he had moved to inside the office, propping up by his shoulder on the wall next to the sofa,

“but what’s the point”, Aster chimed in,

:”the point is I’ve seen the horrible things they have done, and I really just don’t like the king, he is an underhanded shell of a man that should crawl back into the hole he dug himself out of”, Amon said, his eyes flashing with anger,

Aster calmed his nerves a bit, he stepped forward,” you sure this just isn’t some family dispute”, he asked,

“obviously not”, Levant retorted sarcastically, both Barak and Polaris shrugging their shoulders,

“ I see you four will need some convincing that this just isn’t some argument blown way out of proportion by my brother and I”, Amon said, the hints of disappointment lingered on his words,

“well let me tell you that if you leave this room and ask anyone here if they think that all this is an over dramatized argument they would think very poorly of all of you or call you ignorant and naive”, Amon continued,

“ as I’ve told you boys a lot of the people gathered here are not from Dracht, they know first hand what the ambitions of the dracht kingdom and Aluric feel like, many of them have lost loved ones, and all of us have watched towns and families burn”, Yumi explained,

“and from what we can tell the royal family did this seemingly out of nowhere, everything was peaceful before, then one day the crown prince announced that they found evidence that this land was once ruled in it’s entirety by the Dracht royal family and that it was their birth right to reclaim and rule the continent in it’s entirety, the king agreed with him and standing right next to the royal family as a sign of his endorsement was the leader of the Artemis Guild, Aluric”, Amon finished explaining,

Stolen story; please report.

“Still think this is some petty dispute between brothers”, Yumi asked,

“I can tell, he’s genuine in what he said, to a certain point at least”, Levant continued,

“hmm, well if you say so Levant, though I’m curious, Mr. Amon, you seem rather comfortable opposing your brother, why is that ?”, Aster asked, seeming very intrigued,

“well I honestly feel partially responsible, for what’s happening, I should’ve realized my brother was going down the wrong path, throughout his life at the guild and at the orphanage, the prince has always been there right alongside Aluric indulging and coercing him to get into all kinds of trouble, besides he was never one to believe that blood is thicker than water”, Amon said,

Barak sighed, ”well no point debating if we should help you now are not, since we’re already here”, Barak said,

“plus I believe we four have a score to settle with your brother”, Barak added on, the other three silently nodded in agreement,

“fair enough”, Amon answered,

“Okay, that is enough with introductions”, yumi said springing to her feet, in her usual upbeat attitude,

“I guess you’re right, it’s about time, everyone should be assembled in the training area by now,”, Amon said

“you four, I’ll get someone to show you to the living area, get settled then meet us in the training area”, yumi told the boys,

As she stepped out quickly and then suddenly returned with a young boy in front of her,

“this is balmon he is going to show you to your rooms”, yumi said, The boys shortly followed the young boy out of the office, Yumi wore a smile on her face, but in her eyes fury rested,

“Your brother knows where we are, and I don’t know when he will act but it’ll be soon”, Yumi said,

“I know, we received word from him, he gave us a week to surrender”, Amon said,

“I’m surprised though, you and Keagan were close friends, I thought I was going to find you more shaken up”, Yumi said, Amon reached his hand down to one of the desk drawers, the drawer itself was empty, except for a small pile of small square papers, he silently shuffled through them, until he stopped at one, he stared at it for a moment, then threw it on the desk,

“that is the only picture I have of me and Keagan”, Amon said,

“it was taken when I went on a beast slaying mission by the guild, that was the first time I met Keagan, on that same day I saved his life and he saved mine, from that day on we were friends”, Amon said, giving pause after he had finished speaking,

“no from that day we were brothers”, amon said,

He picked the picture up off of the desk, holding it up in air, he flicked the lighter he held in his hand, the slight ringing sound filled the room briefly as the cover collided with the body, the small orange flame emitting from it, he hovered the picture over the fire until it began to burn, throwing it back on the desk as the flame slowly burned away the piece of paper and the picture on it,

“I can’t even remember how many of these I’ve burned”, Amon said,

“well lets pray that that was the last one caused by this war”, yumi said,

“I don’t even know if after coming this far if I’ll be able to burn my brothers one”, Amon said,

“don’t worry, if it comes to that I will help you burn it”, yumi said,

later, in the training area

the four boys entered the training area, it was an extremely vast space surrounded by high walls, the ground was covered in loose dirt, that had been flattened, with various training equipment scattered around the edges of the wall, inside the area itself stood a large crowd of people, it honestly looked like a miniature army,

Levant put his hand above his eyes, peering at the crowd, ”wheew, how much people do you guys think they gathered”, levant asked,

“ Judging by all the shuffling I can feel through the ground I’d say around two thous…no more like twenty-five hundred are so”, aster replied to Levant,

“ damn and yumi said that this isn’t even all of them”, Levant said with a look of amusement in his eyes, at the front of the training area stood a stage, yumi, Bard and Amon, were all standing on top of the stage,

“Ladies and Gentlemen, A-TEN-HUT !!!!”, Amon shouted, his voice booming across the open space, everyone in the crowd immediately stopped what they were doing and straightened up, standing at attention and paying strict attention to what was going on, on the stage,

“at ease everyone, at ease,”, amon said,

“now that I have your attention, yesterday we received word from the guild, their leader, my brother, Aluric, which many of you have worked for in the past or have some way or another encountered , he has given us one week, one week to prepare for the war that has been brewing for months on end, I know how many of you feel, he and those at the guild have sold out to the Royal Family of Dracht, which has caused many of your families to be torn apart, and has caused pain on all sides, but I guarantee that one week from today they will no longer, exists as a guild, we will take them down and destroy their guild hall, so tonight, dance, eat, drink , celebrate, because tomorrow we have work to do”, Amon, said,

“YYYEEEESSSS SSSIIRR”, the crowd shouted, which sounded like a thunderous roar,

After everything had quieted down Bard stood in the stage, “ oi you noisy bunch, tonight we are also going to decide on the four who are going to take on the four pillars of the guild, they are the direct guards for aluric as well as the four strongest guild members besides aluric, and this is how we are going to decide”, Bard explained,